Darrell Green: Cornerback lived right, played hard

Wednesday

Jul 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMJul 30, 2008 at 2:31 AM

Every day for 30 years, Leonard Green draped on his lab coat and went to work. He was a technician for Maxwell House Coffee. Then the fifth of Leonard and Gloria Green’s seven children came along. And for 20 years, Darrell Green played cornerback in the NFL like a caffeinated sparkplug.

Todd Porter

Every day for 30 years, Leonard Green draped on his lab coat and went to work. He was a technician for Maxwell House Coffee. Day in and day out, he went to work, then back home for his family.

Then the fifth of Leonard and Gloria Green’s seven children came along. And for 20 years, Darrell Green played cornerback in the NFL like a caffeinated sparkplug.

Leonard Green worked around the beans for 30 years. Darrell Green rattled wide receivers’ beans for 20.

Who had the tougher job? Does it matter?

“We were from the days of when kids did what their dads and parents said to do, and obey them and respect them,” Darrell Green said. “We looked at their examples. I think that’s where I was mostly influenced.

“We learned a lot from my parents just by what they did and what they said, and it absolutely, I think, carried over to my success. When I got drafted, I was like the other kids. I came out of college and got a job. I just happened to be a football player, and I worked for the Washington Redskins Inc.”

No cornerback in NFL history played longer. Certainly few of them can walk into the Pro Football Hall of Fame looking like Green does, as if he could suit up for the Redskins and still shut down the opposing team’s best receiver.

That’s what Green did for three decades, and that’s what makes him part of the Hall of Fame Class of 2008. He will be enshrined Saturday at Fawcett Stadium.

Good to the last drop

In 1997, at age 37, Green was honored in a ceremony before a December game against Philadelphia. He picked off a pass that day and returned it 83 yards for a touchdown. He played five productive seasons after that.

When Green decided to retire, he exited with 295 career games, 54 interceptions — something of a feat given his notorious stone hands — and was a seven-time Pro Bowler.

“In those 20 years, he played 95 percent of the time,” former Washington Defensive Coordinator Richie Petitbon said. “He was playing and starting for us those last five years.”

How did Green do it? He lived right. He trained hard. He respected the game. He loved his family. He had an unwavering faith in God.

“It was my approach, and I think it carried me 20 years,” Green said. “I think the way my parents trained us — our Christian faith certainly made us to a point where we kept things in perspective all the time. It just was awesome.

“I can say that this has to be the most appreciative Hall of Fame inductee in the history of the Hall of Fame from so many different vantage points, with a holistic vantage point, and not just football.”

Not bad for a skinny 5-foot-7 kid from Jones High School near Houston, a kid who didn’t play varsity football until his senior season.

When Green was in elementary school, he played football, but not against kids his own age. He played against those a year younger.

“Instead of playing with guys my age, I played with guys my size,” Green said.

By the time Green was in eighth grade, he could no longer play against the younger kids. He had to make a choice: Play against kids in his class or continue to fear the sport.

“I was a little afraid, a little small,” he said.

But he had a plan. Green knew his parents could not afford to send him to college. Athletics, particularly football or track, would pay his way.

During his sophomore season at Jones, Green ran track. He was as smooth as a rolling river and fast as the crack of lightning against the night sky. He wanted to make a name for himself in track and catch the attention of football coaches.

“I was a nobody and didn’t do anything in middle school,” Green said. “So I said I better go run track and at least get on the athletic radar. That’s what I did.”

Being little has big impact

His junior season in high school, Green went out for football and was disappointed to be put on the junior varsity.

“I don’t have any (high school) coaches that I could say gave me this or that,” Green said. “I could say they gave me an opportunity when I did try. But it didn’t teach me anything when I first started. It just taught me that I could play, and I needed some help getting over the fear and insecurity of being told how little I was and how I can’t play.”

Leonard Green, however, always encouraged his son. When detractors said he wasn’t this or couldn’t do that, the father saw something in the kid.

“It goes back to my dad, who said, ‘Boy, you can really play that ball.’ That was encouraging. But that against all the voices of, ‘Man, you’re too little’ or ‘Get out of here little guy, you’re too small, you’re scared.’ His voice eventually prevailed.”

Green started as a senior, but no Division I college had interest in a skinny, fast, short cornerback. Green settled on Division II Texas A&I, a school that found Green by accident. Defensive Coordinator Freddy Jonas was at Jones High to look at other players. Jonas couldn’t get past Green’s speed.

Once on campus, Green was faster than Jonas thought. But Green soon became homesick. One afternoon, Green headed to the bus station with a ticket back to Houston. Jonas got him before the bus did and drove him back to campus.

It wasn’t long, however, until Green left A&I. After a year off, Green returned. He excelled on the field. He was one of the fastest sprinters in the country and ran 100 meters in 10.08 seconds, second only to future Olympian Carl Lewis during his senior season.

Still, Green’s talent in football showed through.

“Texas A&I was way down there,” former Washington General Manager Bobby Beathard said. “(Head Coach) Gil Steinke was a great guy, and he got a lot of great players down there. Watching this kid was incredible. You saw him and thought this guy is special.

“I thought he could be one of the great punt returners ever as I watched him on film. He had everything but height to be a great corner, but when a player has the rare qualities like he had, you can forget height. I’ve never seen anyone with his catch-up speed and burst and coming out of breaks.”

More than physical tools, Beathard noticed something else on film and through talking with Green. He had a no-nonsense attitude on the field. He carried himself with inner arrogance without being flamboyant.

“He had the attitude of a great quarterback. You know the ones who throw an interception, guys like Marino and Elway, and don’t care, and they come back out and kill you. Darrell was the same way,” Beathard said. “Joe Gibbs called it athletic arrogance. That was a good thing.”

Size doesn’t matter

Beathard had Green rated high on the Redskins’ draft board. Washington needed to rebuild its speed on defense. Green was a perfect fit. Yes, at 5-foot-8 he was smaller than most NFL cornerbacks, and he didn’t have the prototypical size Redskins coaches wanted in the defensive backfield.

“I don’t think the secondary coach at the time was happy,” Beathard said. “But I had a reputation of not worrying about size. We had a fun bunch ... it wasn’t long until the coach fell in love with Darrell.”

“When I first saw Darrell, all I saw was this guy was little,” Petitbon said. “I didn’t know if he could play pro football. Then he started running, and I thought, ‘This guy has a chance.’ As he started working with weights and building up strength, he got to be a sturdy guy.”

Green almost didn’t go to the Redskins as Beathard also had a quarterback from Pitt, Dan Marino, rated highly. The Redskins had a Pro Bowl quarterback in Joe Theismann and were coming off a win in Super Bowl XVII.

But Marino kept sliding in the 1983 draft. Washington had the 28th pick. Marino went 27th to Miami.

“We were the only team that didn’t have to pass up Dan Marino,” Beathard said. “It would have been a tough decision. On a scale of 1-to-10, I had Dan rated like a 9.”

The Redskins made it back to the Super Bowl the next year, losing to the Los Angeles Raiders. Just a rookie, Green felt the sting. His head hung in the locker room when the game was over like it might be his last Super Bowl.

But that season already had proved that big things could be expected.

Prime-time performance

Green wasted little time making an impact on his new team. In his first pro game on Monday Night Football, Dallas running back Tony Dorsett broke loose on a long run and looked to be running freely down the sideline for a 90-yard-plus touchdown.

Green wasn’t even in the TV picture, then appeared. He chased down Dorsett to prevent a touchdown. Washington lost, but something else happened to the Redskins that night.

“It looked like it was going to be a 97-yard touchdown,” Beathard said. “Then Darrell was like a missile and caught Tony. And remember, Tony Dorsett could move. Everybody’s mouth dropped. It opened the Cowboys’ and the rest of the league’s eyes to how fast Darrell was.”

It made the Redskins believe they were just as fast and just as athletic as Dallas. A rookie made up mental ground for the rest of his team.

From 1976-82, Dallas beat Washington 10 times in 13 games in one of the NFL’s greatest rivalries. From 1983-91, the Redskins won 10 of 18 games against the Cowboys.

“That play was unbelievable,” Petitbone said. “Up until that time, Dallas was definitely beating us more times than we beat them. When we did beat them, it was like it was lucky we beat them. When he ran down Dorsett, that was a turning point in a 10-year span when we handled Dallas. The pendulum swung toward the Redskins in that rivalry with one play.”

Green remembers the play and understands that it may well be the highlight-defining play of his career.

“First of all, that play was not that big to me,” Green said. “That was a bad play, if anything. The guy just ran 40 or 50 yards on us and down in the red zone area. So it became famous in retrospect, but in that moment, it was a bad play. It was nothing to be honored and happy about.”

Another super play

There were other big plays, too.

In the 1988 NFC Championship game, Washington led Minnesota, 17-10, but the Vikings had the ball at Washington’s 6-yard line with less than a minute to play. Wade Wilson threw a pass to Darrin Nelson near the goal line, and Green swatted it down to preserve the win. The Redskins went on to beat Denver in Super Bowl XXII.

A week prior to the NFC Championship, Green broke a 14-14 tie with Chicago by returning a punt 52 yards for the game-winning TD. Before he hit the end zone, Green grabbed his rib cage. He tore some cartilage making a cut.

“If I would’ve let him return punts, he would’ve been the greatest punt returner of all time,” Petitbon said. “We needed him on defense. ... The first time he touched the football as a pro was a preseason game, and he ran a punt back against the Falcons. I’ve never seen anybody run as fast as him in a football uniform.”

The Redskins won two Super Bowls and played in a third with Green and other future Hall of Famers leading the way. His presence on defense allowed Washington to be aggressive with blitz packages and coverage schemes.

For 20 seasons, Green filled highlight reels for the same team. His loyalty didn’t just stay on the field. He has been happily married to the same woman, Jewell. He has never used alcohol. He took care of his body. That’s how a man in his 40s can run a 4.3 40-yard time and still play in the NFL.

“He was the kind of guy you never worried about your phone ringing in the middle of the night,” Petitbon said. “In today’s game, that doesn’t happen very often. He was unique. You need to look at the whole package, and that’s why he had the career he had. He did things the right way. With his ability, he could afford to dog it in practice. He never did. He never mouthed off. He never belly-ached.”

Green didn’t have it easy, either. His assignment every week was to guard the best receivers and do it one-on-one. That was the concept behind Petitbon’s defense.

It allowed the Redskins to double the secondary receiver and have confidence that Green would lock down the primary threat. In a sense, it gave Washington a 12th man on defense. It opened up blitzes.

“I was covering the Michael Jordan of the other team,” Green said. “Everybody was a threat to me all the time because I wasn’t covering the B and C guy. I was covering the guy who brought them to the dance. There was none of them I said, ‘Wow, I got a cool day today.’ I got the Jordan this week, and I got the Barkley the next week. That was a great thrill to me.”

Like father, like son. Leonard Green draped a lab coat on for 30 years at Maxwell House. Darrell Green draped receivers for 20 years.

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